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59
A rcoord is to be kept of the enquiries or investigations made in
each case into the causes and antecedents of the disease, and of the
conclusions reached by the Medical Officer of Health as to the factors
which combined to produce it.
The Local Government Board's circular further states :—
"In the Board's circular letter of the 1 6th of November,
1911, attention was drawn to the difference between
pulmonary tuberculosis and infectious diseases which are
made notifiable under the Infectious Disease (Notification)
Act, 1899, and the Public Health (London) Act, 1891.
This difference is affirmed by Article XVI. and is the
basis of the administrative policy of the Board in relation
to tuberculosis. Administrative action will be less
needed in cases of non-pulmonary than of pulmonary
disease; but investigation into sources of infection will
form an important part of the work to be done in regard
to all forms of tuberculosis.
Inquiries under these Regulatiens need not and must not be
conducted in such a way as to cause annoyance t,o patients
or their friends. In visiting a workshop for instance the
Medical Officer of Health must carefully avoid any
suggestion that the visit is made in connection with a
notified case of tuberculosis."
The new Regulations came into operation on 1st February, 1913,
and the operation of these Regulations can only be dealt with in future
Annual Reports.
It will be noted that the nnmber of new cases of consumption
occurring among " Hampstead" residents notified during the year
1912 differs from the number referred to elsewhere in the Report.
This is accounted for by the fact that in accordance with the terms of
the Poor Law Regulations, 1908, some cases were notified to me who
may not have been " Hampstead" residents, but the certificates in
respect of whom I was bound to accept. Such for instance were :—
1. Persons whose place of residence prior to admission to Poor
Law Infirmaries was stated to be a Hospital in Hampstead.
'2. Persons leaving Poor Law Infirmaries outside Hampstead'
whose intended address at place of destination was stated to
be a Hospital in Hampstead.